The Forest's Path
by FridaytheRager
Summary: Don't read this story until it says complete. Two young brothers flee from death, by entering the territory of the Fae. As they continue on through the midst of the forest, however, they question whether or not they made the best choice. Human AU and a slight sprinkle of usuk on top. Like I said though, please wait until it is finished.
1. Chapter 1

Everyone knew to stay away from the forest.

It's ironic because most of you are most likely picturing a sea of trees that lead into pitch black darkness. And once entering the forest, you find a heavy silence that seems to suffocate any kind of sound. However, that is not the case.

True, the forest did stretch out to the point where it appeared more like a wall almost scraping the sky, but besides that it looked relatively normal. Birds would fly over it without any trace of fear, and it would go through seasons like any other forest would. Hell, people even cut down the trees on the outer edges when needed.

The people remained in their cities and villages to prevent punishment from the Fae.

It had been several decades since any individual laid their eyes on these creatures, but no one doubted for a second the Fae existed. Legends and myths about the cruelty of the Fae were scattered across the lines on literature. The most recent and gruesome of the tales happened around a hundred years ago, when a king tried to capture the queen of fairies to be his bride.

His guards succeeded in imprisoning the fairy, but strange events began to occur. Dust storms blew across the lands, causing most of the crops to die out. Rivers and lakes turned marshy, and dead fish rose up from the murky depths. At first, the citizens just ignored the signs and made due of what they had, but a plague soon broke out. Thousands of people fell to the ground, coughing out blood and other bodily fluids. Violence ran rampant everywhere, to the point where a person would be beaten to death in an attempt to obtain the piece of bread they had. The king, realizing his error, begged for the fairy queen to spare his kingdom from further damage.

The queen simply laughed at the pathetic mortal before her and said these words:

_For the remainder of your pitiful life you will witness the death of those closest to you_

_And once you have perished into the cold, hard ground your great kingdom will crumble apart_

_Only then, will this hell cease_

_However, from then on I will not regulate how my people treat you_

_You decided to humiliate me and make me submit to you _

_And for that, my citizens will do the same for your pitiful race_

And with that, she flew off into the night sky, leaving the king to wallow in his own misery. Later on, the curse became reality as the king's younger and only brother died of the plague. The king soon died to the same circumstances. With no heir to the throne and very few citizens left to rule, the kingdom fell apart.

True to the Queen's words, the Fae became violent. If any human caught their attention, unfortunate events would fall upon them. If a human held a good quality, like having a beautiful singing voice, the Fae would curse the poor soul out of jealousy. If a human dared offend one of the Fae, they would face severe punishments.

So the few remaining people that survived after the fall of the kingdom fled, as far away as they could manage. The humans stayed in the fields, and the Fae would hopefully remain in their vast forest.

In fact, humans feared the Fae to the point where they would kill anyone who might catch the Fae's eye.

This explains why currently the two main characters of this story were currently being chased by an angry mob.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: The actual first chapter but I was too lazy to say the first chapter was a prologue.

**Oh, I forgot in the first chapter to say I don't own Hetalia. And yes, this sort of is inspired by the miniseries "Over the Garden Wall". What I mean is the idea of two brothers walking through a magical forest encountering strange people and events. Yeah, that's in here. I won't just steal the events from that story though, because that's lazy and plagiaristic. But some of the elements might be similar; I'll try to be original though.**

**Enjoy at your own risk.**

At the stretch of dawn, two small silhouettes could be seen sprinting towards the tower of trees. Not far behind them an angry hoard of villagers pursued them in haste, waving their guns and hatchets in the air. As the sun rose, the villager's menacing scowls could be seen directing their fury onto the small boys ahead of them. Their shrieks rang across the empty valley, crying out gruesome ways to kill the little urchins.

"_Put their heads on a pike!" _

"_Stone them to death!"_

"_Burn them at the stake!"_

Hearing these words seemed to add an extra boost of speed for the boys. Their lungs burned and their legs ached, but they dared not to slow for a moment. As the sky shifted from a dim navy blue to a soft pink, the two boys could make out the distance towards the trees.

Matthew, the taller of the two boys and the one currently leading, gave out a sigh of relief. Just a few more meters and they would be home free. At least he hoped that would be the case. He glanced over at his younger brother trailing behind him.

"How're you holding up there Alfie?"

Alfred shot him a weary glare and spat at the ground. He could hardly gratify Matthew with a response at the moment, seeing how he barely could breathe properly. His chest felt tight and he could only manage to stumble numbly behind his brother.

An apologetic smile flashed across Matthew's face and he lifted a shaking finger towards the forest.

"Just a little bit longer, okay?"

Alfred let out an irritated huff in reply.

Matthew forced himself to make a final sprint into the approaching forest. He met a bramble of twigs tearing at his clothes and face, forcing him to shut his eyes tight. He continued to scramble through the pain until he no longer heard the cries of the mob. Finally halting to a stop he allowed himself to rest.

Breathing honestly had never felt so amazing in his life. Matthew lifted his arms above his head and plopped to the ground.

He didn't have much time to do so for a small body hurtled into him, knocking his newly regained breath out.

"That *wheeze* was *wheeze* the worst *wheeze* thing I've *wheeze* ever done." Alfred managed to gasp out. He sighed loudly and buried his face into Matthew's back.

Matthew scowled and pushed the younger blonde off him.

"That's what you get for pigging out all the time." Matthew teased. He pinned Alfred to the ground, using his stomach as a mattress. Alfred yelped in surprise and squirmed underneath Matthew's hold.

"No, I just can run fast 'cause I don't have freakishly long chicken legs like some people! Now lemme gooooooooo." Matthew rolled his eyes glanced around.

The trees seemed to replace most of the sky, leaving only specks of land not covered in shadows. Trunks and branches rode across towards the horizon in every direction, each one leading into a faded darkness. The only sound Matthew could hear besides his brother's taunting in the background was the gentle rustling of wind and a bubbling brook nearby.

He should have been terrified, considering this mass of trees harbored creatures that could kill him on the spot. Yet for some reason he felt no fear, no anxiety, not even the slightest trace of worry. Instead the opposite happened, a sense of calm washed over him.

It was almost as if…..

"Hey! Mattie, are you okay there? C'mon I can't breathe bro!"

Oh yeah, Alfred was still underneath him. Matthew lifted himself off his red-faced brother and held out an apologetic hand for him.

Alfred shot him a pathetic glare and smacked the hand away. Now that his brother stopped being a jerk-face, he looked around their surroundings for himself. Not finding anything of interest, he dropped back onto the ground with a sigh.

"This place seems pretty boring for a magical forest." Matthew shrugged.

"It's better than an angry mob running at your heels for stealing a piece of bread," Matthew looked over at Alfred with that 'this is your fault' look which Alfred grinned widely in response.

"Sorry big bro, I was trying to fast like you teached me but Mr. Tummy started grumbling. And when Mr. Tummy starts grumblin' there's no stopping him until he gets what he wants. Isn't that right?" He patted his stomach lovingly.

Matthew exhaled dejectedly and pinched the bridge of his nose. "It's 'taught' Alfred, and that's no excuse." He tried to explain as calmly as possible, "I know you get hungry easily, but you could have at least tried to show some semblance of self-control, because now we stuck here. Not to mention this is a forest full of monsters that will most likely kill us on sight."

Alfred laughed and waved his hand dismissively at his brother.

"We'll be fine; we just have to get out of the forest before anyone catches us. Besides, a hero never gets killed by the bad guys. But if you're so worried I'll protect ya."

"…I guess you're right on the first thing. Wait a second," Matthew darted his eyes around, "do you remember which way we came in from?"

Alfred's smile faltered.

"No, I thought you knew. Hahaha, but we can't be too far away right? At least I don't think we ran too far in here." Alfred jumped up and searched for a light shining in the distance, but all he could see were an infinite number of trees in each direction.

Skittlywhiskers

Matthew slumped onto the grass in defeat. Great, they're lost too. God might as well send down an onslaught of rain while he's at it. Burying his head in his hands, he sobbed silently.

"Hey, Mattie please don't be sad!" Alfred hugged his brother as tightly as his little arms could. "We'll find a way out. Why don't we rest for the night, does that sound good?" He never could handle other people being sad, especially his brother.

Matthew nodded his head slightly and gave Alfred a quick squeeze in return.

"Alright that sounds good. Do you want to go get the blankets out of the bag? I'll make a fire in the meantime." Alfred's eyes widened slightly.

"We still have the bag?"

Matthew raised an eyebrow and chuckled, "Yeah, I was carrying it the whole time, didn't you notice?"

"I was trying to not get killed. Do think I would notice something like that?! Ugh, nevermind I'll get your stinky blankets out of the smelly bag." Alfred stomped over to do his task.

Matthew wiped the remaining tears from his eyes and grabbed a few twigs. Luckily for him, his striker had remained in his pocket during the whole escapade. He automatically set to work on making a flat surface by ripping out clumps of grass. He was used to this kind of work by now since he and Alfred lived out in the open. No individuals wished to take in the two dirty urchins; they had their own families to feed. Finding a welcoming home was especially hard when one was a meek eleven-year-old who could hardly lift up a basket of clothes, while the other was a brash nine-year-old glutton.

But that was fine; Matthew and Alfred managed to get by. The two would scavenge for any items or food they get their hands on. Sometimes that meant stealing when no one was looking, but for the most part they tried to live off of what nature provided.

Matthew leaned back to look at his handiwork. This fire pit wasn't perfect, but it would do. He hit his striker together with a nearby rock until a spark fell into the tepee of sticks. He gently blew on the spark and allowed it to spread, making sure to guard it from the wind so it didn't blow out. When the flame grew larger he threw larger twigs into the fire until it was big enough not to be blown out by the wind.

He looked over to see two blankets spread out somewhat neatly on the ground. Well, one was neatly spread out on the ground. Alfred had bundled himself around the other one, snoring softly into it. Matthew smiled, then picked up a nearby twig and hurled it lightly at Alfred's face.

Alfred woke with a start and let out a groan.

"wwassss that fer Mattie? I'm try'n to sleep."

"You can't sleep yet, I haven't told you tonight's story."

"I don' caaaarrrrreeeee just tell me tomorrooooowww." Alfred whined.

"So you_ don't_ want to know what happened to Tony the star warrior? Alright, I guess you have to wait another day to figure out if he survives falling off that cliff…."

"No wait! I'm up see!" Alfred scrambled out of his blanket and plopped next to Matthew. He looked up at him expectantly with wide blue eyes.

Matthew smirked, "That's what I thought, so where was I? Oh yeah, so Tony, the brave warrior from the stars, found himself falling off the cliff," He paused for a moment letting the suspense kick in, "_to his doooooommmmmm!_"

Alfred gasped loudly, "No, the hero can't die! What happens next!?"

Matthew took a deep breath, getting himself into character. Then, in a second he spilled forth an epic narration of how Tony cleverly used his magic star to propel himself into the sky. He stammered in suspense as Tony's star faded and the hero found himself hurtling toward a lake. Matthew hunched himself and groaned in a low voice when the witch of the lake rose the depths of the murky water. He grabbed a stick and reenacted the battle between Tony and the witch of the lake. He parried and slashed at the air, until the imaginary foe had been defeated. His voice became a distant mummer as the hero found himself wounded at the cost of defeating the witch. He was about to sing out when the witch became a beautiful princess, who then healed the hero…

but he found that Alfred had fallen asleep with a content smile.

Matthew smiled softly and placed a gentle kiss on his little brother's brow.

"I'll tell you the rest in the morning."

He watched the crackling fire until it burned itself out then drifted off to sleep.

**Yeah, Binge writing rocks! Hope this doesn't suck biscuits!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hahahaha I bet you didn't expect me to actually finish this story but I will! I reeaally should change my summary for the fic, huh? Buuuuut I won't. Not until the fic is finished. I sort of feel uncomfortable with showing something I'm in the process of making, so bear with me.**

**Enjoy at your own risk.**

_Lights_

_Shimmering colors of all kinds floated around the perpetual darkness surrounding him. They felt comforting, as if each one were a tiny sun. Matthew faintly could hear gentle words being whispered into his ears._

"_Go back to sleep, you'll be safe soon."_

_Who was he to deny such a simple request? Matthew closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift back into unconsciousness. The gentle voices hummed cheerfully at his actions and praised what a good boy he was._

_Just go back to sleep._

"_Ma-"_

_Everything will be fine._

"_-attie "_

_You'll be reunited with __**him**__ shortly._

"_Mattie!"_

_Matthew frowned, but kept his eyes shut. Who was trying to wake him up? Just be quiet, he thought, he just needed a little more rest-_

"_Mattie w-!"_

_Matthew opened his eyes and sat up, to the disdain of the voices. They attempted to lull him back to sleep, but he ignored their pleas._

"_Alfred where are you?!" _

_Lifting himself off the ground, he dashed through the darkness in search for his brother. The colorful lights flashed into a blinding red and swarmed around the poor boy. The voices' whispers turned to shrieks, commanding him to go back to sleep, but he continued to struggle against their hold._

"_Mattie! Wake up!"_

Matthew jolted awake to find himself floating on a mass of fairies. On every side there were a team of them pulling his arms and legs away from him. Under closer inspection, he noticed how terrifying these things were. Every angle of their bodies looked as if their bones were trying to break through their thin gray like skin. Their dead, white eyes stared blankly ahead. Were they blind perhaps? Maybe if he could use that against them to escape. His hopes were crushed when all of their eyes focused on him. Their maniac grins spread across like a wildfire and within an instant, they dug their nails deep into his skin.

Matthew cried out. Damn! It felt like tiny needles were being forced into his body! The fairies giggled happily, but they didn't sink their nails in further.

"_Are you up already little one?" _the one of the creatures cooed, flying up to him until she was a centimeter above his face. Matthew cringed and tried to break out of the mass' grip.

"Why are you doing this? Release me!"

She, at least it looked like a she anyway, let out a giggle and stroked his cheek.

"_I would, but I don't take orders from abominations like yourself." _

"Get off my brother you jerkfaces!"

Alfred? Matthew moved around as much as he could to catch a glimpse of the smaller blonde. The fairies hissed and pulled his limbs farther away from himself. Where was he? He had to be around here some- AAACK!

He felt something collide with his stomach, and was unceremoniously dropped to the ground. Oh God, he felt like he was going to throw up. What the heck just happened?

Reluctantly, Matthew looked up to see his brother swatting at the swarms of fairies with a thick branch.

Alfred seemed pretty ticked off. Well, in that case he better just let Alfie take this one. It's best to not interfere when he gets on his rampages. A dog sized boulder to the nuts taught him that lesson years ago.

Meanwhile….

Alfred lunged at every fairy he could get his eyes on. With every hit he made, dozens of fairies would hurdle into the sky until not even their silhouettes could be seen in the distance.

"Time for branch!"

_Whack_

"Don't stick around!"

_Whack_

"Other bad stick puns!"

_whack_

After hitting the last group of fairies, he threw down his weapon and sprinted towards his brother.

"Mattie! You're okay right?"

"Well you did hit me in the stomach with a bran…"

"I thought they were going to take you away!" Alfred tackled him with a hug, and proceeded to sob in his chest.

"I *hic* don't want you t-to *hic* go away. I'm sorry that I di-didn't' *hic* listen to you."

Matthew sighed and rubbed Alfred's back to calm him down.

"Don't worry about it Alfie, I'm okay. Did any of those things hurt you at all?"

"No, *sniff* I don't think so."

He checked him over just to make sure. Yeah, he's fine, just a few scratches. He lifted himself up with Alfred still clinging to his chest.

"Hey do you mind getting off of me please? I need you to go put the blankets back in the bag."

"..okay"

Alfred let go of his brother reluctantly and waddled over to the bag. As he was doing his task, he looked nervously into the abyss of trees. All seemed calm, but his felt as if any second another set of monsters would pop out. Being the hero, Alfred could handle most things. But as he started thinking, his imagination got the best of him. What if those black things in the distance are witches? What if that sound was the crack of a human's skull? What if that was the stench of a troll-

oh wait nevermind that was coming from him.

"You all done back there?" Matthew called out.

"Um yeah just give me a second.." With one last jerk he tied the bag closed and he scurried over to his brother's side. Said brother currently was drawing in the sand with a stick.

"Um, bro what are ya doin'?"

"Just figuring out the fastest way to get out of here," Alfred scrunched up his face in thought.

"We could ….uh well, follow the sun!" Alfred exclaimed happily.

"No Alfred, what if that gets us deeper than we already are?"

Alfred's smile faltered, good point. Crab baskets, what should they do? Enlist the help of some friendly birds through song? No, the last time he did that a bunch of birds started throwing down weird white goop at him. Not sure why exactly, maybe they were jealous about how good his singing was? Yeah, they probably were just like**('ohmyhima this guy is sooooo much better than us, maybe we could get him to teach us how to be so good at singing)** and they tried to pay him in white goop.

Silly birds, white goop isn't proper currenc-

"Alright I figured out what we should do."

Alfred snapped out of his fantasy of educating birds to look over at his brother. Matthew was currently staring proudly at his mapped out plan, which honestly seemed more like a bunch of scribbles. But hey, who was he to judge?

"Uh.. so what're we gonna do chief?"

"Do you hear the sound of running water nearby?" Alfred nodded.

"I guess so why…"

"Because, dear brother, what does water lead to?"

"Lakes?" Matthew sighed.

"Yes, but it also leads to flat lands!"

Alfred gave a blank stare, "I'm not getting you."

"Okay, think of it this way, did you ever notice how water runs down a hill?"

"Yeah bu-"

"Well, when there's enough water it makes little routes for itself. And when those routes have a bunch of water, they sometimes come together to make a big route." Matthew drew lines in the sand to illustrate his point.

"The big route will keep moving, even on flat lands. You know, the kind without a mass of trees around it."

"But what does that have to do wi-" Matthew slammed the stick down.

"Because! Trees are by water, and water comes from the mountain. If we follow the running water, we'll eventually find a prairie or something and be out of here."

Alfred thought it over. To be honest, he could already see the holes in his theory but it wasn't like he had a better idea. He gave his brother the most enthusiastic smile he could muster.

"Sounds like a plan, let's go!" He instantly took off and dashed towards the stream. Matthew blinked, and then realized he was being left behind. He shook his head in frustration, but followed in suit.

"Alfred, wait for me!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Transition~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~blergblergblerg~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Maaaatttiiiiieeeee I'm huuuuuuuungry." Alfred whined, clutching his stomach dramatically.

The taller blonde groaned, "Just drink some water for now, we don't have any food remember?"

"I don't wanna, what if the water is poisoned?"

He stayed silent and kept walking. As annoying as Aflred's whining was, he had a point. Where were they going to get food? Neither of them had eaten anything in days. They didn't even get to have a bite of the bread that Alfred stole. At the memory of that warm loaf of bread in his hands, his stomach growled loudly. Matthew groaned, he would have to tough it out until they could find a rabbit or bird. He didn't trust that the plants were safe for human consumption.

Man, now he was craving bread. Fluffy, warm bread with a partly melted piece of butter dripping down….

Alfred was about to ask to take a break when Matthew suddenly took a sharp right. He stopped for a moment, did Matthew have to take a wee wee? Mattie always taught him to look away when a man had to wee wee, so he sat down impatiently for him to be done.

….

….

….

He didn't hear anything, not even a tinkle.

Alfred cocked his head ever so sneakily to see if Matthew had 'finished the job'.

…Matthew's silouhette could be seen walking away in the distance.

Alfred jolted up and dashed after him. Why did he go so far away from the stream? This was his plan, shouldn't he be following it? Something didn't feel right, Matthew wouldn't just leave him like that. It couldn't be could it? No, it had to be…

A GHOST MUST HAVE POSSESSED HIM

Though ghosts remained his deepest fear, he picked up his pace. No ghost could take his brother away from him; he would sacrifice himself if he had to. Yeah, a heroic sacri-OOOFFFF.

Alfred found himself smacking into Matthew, who let out a startled cry. They tumbled down and rolled into a tree. Neither said anything for a moment until Matthew sat up and pushed Alfred off him.

"Alfred what the hell-I mean- heck is wrong with you!"

Alfred stared at him in shock then happily fist pumped the air, "I got the ghost out of you like a hero!"

Ghost? What was he…wait a second. He frantically swerved his head around.

"Where's the stream? How did we get here? Alfred, what are you doing?" He called as Alfred waddled away from him.

Alfred put his finger over his lips, and then pointed towards the thicket of trees. Matthew glared at him until something caught his eye. Through the trees, a sliver of light could be seen. The blondes looked over at each other excitedly and sprinted forwards.

Matthew smiled brightly, this was it. They were home free; everything could go back to normal. They wouldn't have to deal with fairies or encounter any other freaks again. It would be just the good old plains with Alfred and himself.

He almost let out a cry for joy when he passed the last tree, but quickly noticed something.

This, it was just a clearing. He sank to his knees and pounded his fists to the ground.

"Why." _Thump_

"Why." _Thump_

"Mattie calm down, look at it again."

Reluctantly, he opened his eyes to inspect the clearing better. In the middle their lied the biggest house Matthew had ever laid eyes upon. Ivory white walls stood about halfway of the trees' height, with vines snaking their way on two sides. Unlike most of the houses he had seen, the roof didn't have straw atop it. Instead, there lied a red wavy material for a roof and shiny rectangles sticking to the walls.

(I know that sounds really stupid, but Matthew nor Alfred have ever seen windows before in this.)

But the part that really caught their attention was the garden full of fresh tomatoes surrounding the house.

"Hey Mattie?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't think_ this_ stuff is poisonous do ya?"

Matthew shook his head, "I don't think so."

He glanced around, making sure that no one was around to catch them. When he felt confident that no one was around, he walked over to the nearest plant picking up a plump tomato. It didn't look poisonous, but one couldn't be too sure. He bit softly into the fruit, taking the tiniest bite he could, and nervously swallowed.

A minute went past.

Two minutes went past.

…

Nothing happened.

Matthew let out a sigh in relief and gestured for Alfred to come over. When the younger did so, he immediately grabbed a tomato for himself. At first they ate slowly, planning to savor the fruit then leave as soon as possible. After finishing though they decided one more wouldn't hurt. After all, there were dozens of tomatoes left. One more became two more, and then three more, and then seven more. As they devoured the fruits they became more reckless, greedily grasping the nearest tomato and gobbling it up in an instant. After growing sick of tomatoes, Matthew decided to find something else.

There had to be more variety than this, what kind of person just planted tomatoes and not to mention this many. He was about to return to Alfred when a familiar smell hit him. He turned around the corner to find a table with a loaf of bread on it. Carefully glancing around, he inched slowly towards the plate. When it was within reach he picked it up slowly. It was still warm, but not steaming hot.

Matthew stiffened, if this was still warm then that meant someone may still be around. He tried to put the loaf back where it was, but he found himself staring longingly at it instead. Well, maybe just a tiny bite wouldn't hurt. He could make it look like some birds had pecked at it.

When he took the tiny piece, a warm bliss spread over him. Soft, fluffy bread with dripping hot butter on top was just like he imagined it earlier.

….just like he imagined earlier

Matthew was just about to ponder the coincidence when a voice growled behind him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing bastard?"

**Alright, this took me forever to get around to. I was intending to bring more into this chapter but I'm up to 2,455 words(ish) and I'm tired so I'll stop here.**

**Also a big shout out to coolcat12345 for the review. Thank you for reading this, even though I know this sucks potatoes. It really does mean a lot for people to be reading this, so I promise to finish.**


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